Law Updates

New legislation, implemented from 1 October 2004, contains measures to improve the handling of individual grievances and includes:

• the introduction of statutory dismissal, disciplinary and grievance procedures into all contracts of employment as implied terms

• preventing complaints being made to Tribunals before all or part of the relevant statutory procedure has been completed - time limits will be extended accordingly

• allowing Tribunals to disregard procedural mistakes by employers, provided that the minimum statutory standards for disciplinary procedures have been met

• enabling Tribunals to vary compensation awards by up to 50% where the applicant or employer fail to observe the minimum statutory standards

The aims of the legislation appear to be to put pressure on employers and employees to sort out individual disputes in house, thereby taking some of the load off Tribunals.

Certainly, employers will have to introduce and use the correct procedures and it will be even costlier than previously if they fail to do so. On the other hand, employers should lose fewer cases than they do now if proper procedures are in place. Click here to go to our free model Discipline and Grievance Procedures

It is hard to imagine that the number of complaints will actually fall as there seems to be nothing in the legislation to address the growing problem of 'nuisance cases' where employees 'try it on' simply because there is nothing to lose.